I woke up to the lingering of last night's events still in my head. I had learned the lengths that Twister would go to have me killed. In many ways Zoey was being treated just like a slave, used for something in order to stay alive. I wonder how horribly the poor zebra had really been treated by this stupid pony. To make a filly of any kind do something so bad was beyond my understanding honestly.

I rolled over in my bed to fine Willow Wisp sleeping next to me. She looked as if she was snoring loudly, but her lack of voice luckily saved me that. Seriously, she would have been neighing right into my ear. I watched a fly slowly go into her mouth and she woke up swallowing it. Her head jolting up looking completely baffled at whatever had just happened. I did my best to contain my laughter, but in the end I wasn’t able to. She spit onto the floor trying to get the fly out, which I’m sure she had no idea she even swallowed.

After a few seconds she gave up a looked at me, seeing me covering my laughter into the frame of our bed. “Sorry about that,” I said. “I just couldn’t help myself.”

She didn't seemed bothered by it at all and simply hopped out of bed, looking at the one Sharp had slept in. I looked at it to realize it was empty, meaning that he must have already gotten up and was ready to leave. I slowly got out of bed, Willow Wisp waiting for me patiently as I did. I reached for my power armor only to not find it near my bed, realizing I didn’t wear it coming in. It was still out in the dining area most likely. I remember I had to get out of it in order to bandage Zoey on up the night before.

“Mind helping me a bit over here?” I asked Willow Wisp, not wishing to look like I was injured coming out of the bedroom.

Willow Wisp nodded and took my left hoof throwing it over her neck. I slowly managed to get up and Willow offered some support carrying me out of the bedroom. She carried me out and I looked to see that my power armor was indeed waiting for me near the dining table. Remembrance was also waiting for me strapped over it. Willow Wisp removed my hoof from one around her neck as I got into the power armor. The only part of my body showing was my head of course, since I had to leave it behind at the raider camp due to not having any saddlebags and needing to carry our supplies.

“Look who decided to wake up,” I turned around to see Sharp leaning up against the wall. “Good morning princess.”

I look at him with a face that said “What the fuck”. Princess, out of all the things he decided to call me, it was princess. I don’t know about you but I honestly don’t think I was in anyway a princess, hell I don’t even have wings to be an alicorn. Sharp looked at me with a smile on his face.

“Don’t know what a joke is?” He said holding back some laughter I could here in his voice. “Did you never joke around with your father before,” I shook my head, and he looked at me surprised. “Guess you don’t get much of a childhood out here huh? Well everypony's waiting outside for you and Willow Wisp.”

“I’ll be out in a second,” I tell him. He nods and leaves the room and I turn the repeater I obtained back at the raider base and hand it to Willow Wisp, who looked at it unsure. “You need something to defend yourself with,” Willow shook her head and pushed it away from her. “Look, I know you think I can defend you but I’m just as lost and scared as you are honestly. I have no idea where I’m going or if I’ll even make it there. So please, even if you don’t use it, take the gun.”

Willow looked at the gun for a few more seconds before finally accepting it. She looked at it, and I could see she was shivering as she through the strap over her shoulder. She was afraid of it, wasn’t she. She was afraid of guns, or rather of holding one in her hooves by the looks of it. Despite this she tried to show me that she wasn’t scared. It was to late to convince me otherwise, I had already seen that.

We walked outside together and I looked to see Zoey waiting in a bench on the porch, humming something to herself. Sharp was showing Mud Swirl how to use a gun (a small pistol, most likely a 10 mm.), which was probably a good idea. I think neither Mud Swirl or Stitch had ever fired a gun before, which didn’t shock me honestly considering they only ever had one gun. Walk down the steps to see Stitch standing in front of a grave, Granny’s grave.

I walked up to her side and looked at the grave as well. I couldn’t help but feel bad, it was because of me that she had died in the first place. No, it was Twisters fault, he framed me as a pony I could never be and made Zoey hunt me down. Why, I found myself asking that over and over again. Why did he do it? What did he have to gain from this? Was it for respect? Revenge? Was it out of hate? I didn’t know the answer.

“I remember the day I met her,” Stitch said. “It’s the oldest memory I have. She was much younger then, I was only six. She saved me from something, I don’t remember what it was but she saved me from something. My parents dead bodies were there, and a suit of enclave power armor was as well. We never brought it home, Granny said told me later on that she knew who my parents were and that they were old friends. They were being chase by somepony, but she was never told exactly who. She took me in and treated me as her child, and I could never ask for any pony better.”

“Guess most of us have lost family then,” I said “You, me and Sharpshot have all lost family. I think Sharp had the worst time out of all of us.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m surprise you accept Zoey as part of our team,” I continued. “I thought you would have wanted to rip her to shreds because of what she did.”

“You know just as much as me that she isn’t the one fully responsible,” She replies, I could try that she was holding back tears. “It’s Twisters fault she even ended up out here,” I nodded my head in agreement. “I have one more reason to make him pay now that this happened.”

“Alright everyone gather up,” I looked up to see Sharpshot waiting. “We have a few things we need to discuss before we leave.”

We all headed on up to the porch, Stitch grabbed the revolver that had been sitting on Granny’s grave and made her way slowly up. She was clearly depressed about the death, even though she was trying not to show. I was worried, dad had told me that one of his old friends in the Steel Ranger’s was driven to suicide because of depression. When my father died, I had to remind myself that that wasn’t the answer, and that I had so much ahead of me in life. Back then it simply kept me alive, but this time it was actually true, I did have more ahead in life.

“Before we leave there is something we must discuss,” Sharp said concerned. “And that is the matter of the alicorns Zoey mentioned yesterday night.”

“That is true,” Stitch said concerned. “Zoey, would you know anything about the Alicorns Twister had?”

“A little,” Zoey replied. “Their names are Payday and Scythe. They were part of some war experiment called project Ultima. Twister pays them to do his side work which would involve things such as slave trading and settlement raiding. I got to know them for a time due to my work as Twister’s assassin. I tended to work together with Scythe, who seemed to do the dirtier work and usually involved blood on my hooves.”

“They might cause some problems for us then,” Sharp said. “In which case we should take them out whenever we see them. I don’t want to know what they would do if we gave them the opportunity to kill.”

“That will be hard,” Zoey stated. “Haven't seen a lot of ponies able to touch them, let alone cause them to draw blood. You deal with an alicorn you're going to have to think outside the box. We’re honestly better avoiding them all together.”

“But I don’t think we could run from something like an alicorn,” I argued. “They would notice us before we even noticed them.”

“We should head through Las Pegasus then,” Zoey said. “If we head through there I doubt they will follow us. It’s kind of like they're scared of the place honestly.”

“Then I guess our destination has changed,” Sharp announced. “We go down to Las Pegasus and follow the train system up there through to the Ponyville and Manehattan. Due to the Ponyville train station being somewhat far from the town it's possible that we could avoid contact with the large slaver post in that area completely. We want to keep out of trouble, I say we take that route,”

“What about the Enclave,” Mud Swirl said. “Don’t they have some occupation of that area. I heard that’s where Stitch here was found.”

“In that case maybe the Enclave will be nice and let us in for bringing back one of them,” I said.

“Doubt it,” Sharp said, shooting down what I had said. “Those stupid fuckers think that they are the only “pure race” left out here, and there are so goddess damned head strong that will never happen. They are an impossible group to work with, unless you're a pegasus you better hope they decided not to put some holes in you.”

“That’s not the only thing,” Zoey said. “They have raptors, something I’ve encountered with a few times. The only reason I survived was because Scythe didn't want her backup dead or bleeding out.”

“Makes since.”

“So not only do we have to avoid alicorns, we also have to avoid the Enclave,” Stitch said. “This will be fan-fricken-tastic.”

“As long as we keep away from those S.P.P. Towers of theirs we should be fine right?” Zoey wondered.

“True,” Sharp said agreeing. “In that case we have to be very careful not to cause to much of a ruckus once we’re down there. Don’t want pegasi coming from the sky to kill us.”

We all nodded our heads in agreement. We now had a solid idea of exactly what we were going to do to get to Manehattan. Those Enclave bastards that Sharp mentioned didn’t sound like a group to mess with, and I honestly never knew that they would be that bad. “Pure race?” What the hell kind of nonsense was that. Not anything I think I could honestly fix, but I’m sure that the fake news Twister has spread around is enough to grab even their attention and make them potential enemies. Great, the entire damn wasteland might as well be after me at this point.

“Let's get moving then,” Sharp shouted. “The farther we get the better.”

We all shook our heads and started making our way out of town. I could could tell Stitch was acting very hesitant about the current situation. She keep looking back at the Granny’s grave as we continued to get farther and farther away from the small settlement of Manechester. Thinking about it, she was acting in much the same way I had when I lost my father (although she was taking it better than I had honestly).

“Everything’s going to be okay Stitch,” I say trying to comfort her, “You know staying is going to do any good.”

Stitch let out a long sigh as she looked at me. “You’re right,” She said putting on a fake smile. “You know, for a pony who spent their life stuck in a shed out in the middle of nowhere your entire life, you seem to know a few things.”

“I doesn’t take survival to learn common sense,” I tell her, trying to feel smart. “Honestly you lose common sense in places like this. Any that you have you need to make sure to keep or else you’ll probably end up making a very stupid mistake.”

“That couldn’t be more correct,” Sharp said. “I can blame Canterlot honestly for being my first giant mistake out here. Seriously that smoke smells awful.”

“That’s the thing you managed to pick up out of that location?” Stitch asked, she sounded furious. “You learned it smelled bad? Should you be more concerned with something like the health it could cause.”

Sharp stopped and looked at Stitch. “I’m fine Stitch seriously,” I could tell he was frustrated. “I told you it’s been over a year, don’t you think it good to call me safe?”

“But what about other medical conditions, like cancer?”

“WHY WOULD GOGGLES GIVE ME CANCER?”

Well, this was a great start to our journey. If these two kept bickering like this we would probably get nowhere. I started thinking of a question to ask Sharp to try and draw their minds away from the medical issues.

“Hey Sharp,” I said, managing to get his attention. “How do we plan to get to Las Pegasus?”

Luckily, it seemed my idea had worked. The two stopped fighting and Sharp looked at me with a smile, which he was most likely using to hide his anger against Stitch. “We’re going to had through the Smokey Mountain,” he explained. “It has had some dragon activity recently, but it’s the quickest way down to the White Tail Woods. Once we get through there Las Pegasus should be see able in the horizon,”

“I’ve face a dragon or two,” Zoey said, “There tough, that’s for sure. Almost lost my head to them. If you ask me the most dangerous thing isn’t their fire breath or claws but rather their tails. You can end up so focused on the things you can see right in front of you that you don’t see there tail coming. It can break bones, that's for sure.”

“Makes sense,” I replied. “What about the white tail forest, anything to worry about there?”

“Not really,” Sharp answered. “It’s one of the few areas not incredibly affected by the mega spells which is nice. That means that more natural things grow there and things aren’t really all that mutated. There is still slight radiation in the area but as long as we stay away from water we should be fine.”

I nodded my head, and Sharp took the lead as I stayed back to talk to Stitch. “Guess it really makes you worry,” I whispered to her. “Don’t you think you might be overreacting maybe just a little bit?”

“I know,” Stitch admitted looking down. “It just scares me is all. I’ve never seen the pink cloud before, and Zoey confirmed that ponies are able to die from it. He’s so stubborn I don’t think he knows the risk he might be getting himself having gone there. You can’t really tell if you have cancer cells or not until much later on and I don’t to see him suffer from something like that. Stallions are just way to stubborn when it comes to that kind of stuff,” I nodded my head in agreement, even though I wasn’t really sure what she meant. “Would you mind telling me about your father a little?”

I look at her confused. “What would you like to know?”

“Just who he was as a pony,” Stitch explained. “I never had a pony to call my mom or dad, the only ones I ever had was Granny and Mud Swirl. What kind of pony is a father really? Are the mean or nice, strict or free willed, loving or cruel. I don’t really know what they are like.”

“Well I guess it’s different for everypony,” I said, trying to make sense of it. “Some can be strict and sometimes harsher than others, but I don’t think cruel is really something to call them. All moms and dads should love their foals just as much as they love each other right? But I guess if the two are unhappy then there is a possibility for hate. However, my dad was never mean or cruel. He loved me just as much as he would anyone else. He may have been strict at times, but I know it was all just to keep me safe, and considering what I’ve seen in only two days I could see why.”

“I see,” Stitch said. “Granny always said my mother loved me, but I was never quite sure to be honest with you. This revolver was hers from what Granny told me,” She held the revolver to her face, you could clearly see the rust that had formed on it. “I was always amazed by the fact this thing is still able to work,” She put it back into one of her saddlebags as she looked at me. “Dead Hooves, have you ever found that name kind of insensitive?”

I never really thought about it that much, but she was right in a way. My dad always did seemed ashamed of calling me by my name, he said that my mom came up with it just before she died. He wanted her to decided my name, and he said he wouldn’t go against what she decided. I never realized that it was kind of insensitive, but it was. That brought up some questions about my parents. Why did my mom name me that? Or rather why did she want to name me that? Did she love me like my father had said?

“Hey Sharpshot,” I yelled up to him. “What’s your real name?”

“I don’t want to say it,” He told me. “It brings back to many painful memories of the final day in stable fifteen. I guess it makes sense that you would want to know that, but please understand I have a reason for not telling you.”

“Hey mind if I ask something?” Zoey said, sounding curious.

“Go ahead,” I reply.

“Once you broadcast to the wasteland about Twister, it’s obvious that you are going to be going after him as well,” She thinks a minute before speaking again. “How exactly are you going to take him down?”

“I’m honestly not in this as much for Twister as it is that I’m just helping Dead Hooves and Willow Wisp get to Manehattan,” Sharp explains. “We’ll worry about that when the current objective is done, which is get to Tenpony Tower.”

“What’s Manehattan like?” I ask interested.

“It use to be the biggest city in Equestria,” Zoey told me. “But it had the most amount of megaspells detonations because of that. It’s a giant pile of rubble now, with some ponies still living in the older ruins of the city. Then there is Tenpony Tower, the recently established Friendship city, and Ironsburg, which has been established on a ship in the old harbor area. The Steel Rangers also have a hideout on the Bucklyn bridge. You want to get into friendship city you have to go past them,”

“That shouldn't be a problem,” I say. “My dad was a member so they should let us through.”

“You're a wanted criminal,” Sharp pointed out to me. “I don’t think it’s going to be as easy going up to the Steel Rangers and just saying “hey, my father was one of you, let me in,” You will probably have to prove yourself to them. Even then you are still thought to be one of the most dangerous ponies in the wasteland.”

“You don’t have to remind me,” I rolled my eyes at that last sentence, I knew that part all too well. “That’s why we are going to find the real Bloody Angel. Do I really have to keep saying that?”

“You probably will a dozen more times before this is over,” Stitch said. “Think of all the ponies you are going to have to explain this to.”

“Manehattan isn’t going to be as big of a problem as just getting there,” Zoey told us. “Compared to the Enclave we have little to nothing. Hell, they have dragon killing tanks for goddess sake.”

“Another reason we need to avoid them,” Sharp responded. “If all goes well we might make it through without any trouble, stupid old Lady Luck will probably be against us for all we know.”

“Sorry to interrupt” Mud Swirl said bored of the current topic. “Could you get back to telling us about Manehattan.”

“Okay,” Zoey said. “The ministry of morals is located in the city and there are monorails in the city. Ponies have somehow manage to fix them and keep them running, but only a few ponies are allowed on each day. Traveling in monorail is safer however, as Ghouls still roam the city pretty freely. The two biggest monorail stations are Luna’s line and Celestia’s line, which are located at the west and east end of the city. They even play music for you while you're on it.”

“It’s really hard to get on one though because of the limited number of ponies allowed per day,” Sharp said. “I’ve been in the city a bunch and gotten on it less than a dozen times. It’s an absolute bullshit system that’s for sure, even if they have a reason for it.”

“That’s really all there is to the city,” Zoey said ending her long explanation. “And I agree, it really is a bullshit system.”

I watched as Stitched stop moving and looked behind her. We all stopped and decided to follow her gaze. Manechester was no longer in view, and we looked around to see the wide expanse of the wasteland around us. It was amazing that the grass still somewhat grew out here, and that trees still managed to produce air. The fact that once, this world looked so much different, that smog didn’t once show in the sky, that some of these things never even existed until recently. It’s a strange thing, knowing you grew up in a world that was once so different.

“You really got to wonder what keep pony kind alive,” Stitch said. “I honestly sometimes wonder if we were all suppose to die back in the war. If unicorns and earth ponies should have follow the pegasi and abandoned it.”

“I can see what you mean,” I reply. “But destiny had a reason for letting us live, no matter how good or bad it is. We all survived for a reason, and we can’t put that to waste.”

“Agree,” I heard the others say behind us, Willow just giving a nod.

I saw something on Willow’s face that I couldn’t really explain. Everyone else looked in awe or wonder at the world around them, but Willow seemed depressed about it. It was like this wasn’t the world she wanted, like it wasn’t what should have happened. I could agree, but I like the wasteland to a degree. Not many ponies could say they enjoy exploring the unknown, but I certainly have found myself enjoying it. It is a dangerous world, but you have to trade something for what we have, and this is fine by me.

To think this is what I was being kept from all those years. I finally felt free, free to do whatever I want and go wherever I wished. Didn’t think I would ever want to leave home, but now I’m glad that I’m out here. Sure, I may be getting chased by a good thousand ponies thinking I’m some mass murderer, but something just made it more exciting. It was like I was living life on the edge, maybe I truly was. What would I face? What enemies and allies will I make? So many great questions about the future was filling my head.

“We should get moving,” Sharp said to me. “It’s a day's walks to Smokey Mountain and I would like to get there before it gets too dark.”

“Right,” I reply. “Let’s keep moving.”

Author's Notes:

And here we have chapter six. This is where things are going to start going a bit crazy I guess you can say, as in we are pretty much done with the beginning of the story and we are almost introduced to all the main characters (whether just by name or the fact that we have actually seen them). Kind of funny honestly, I have almost done it by chapter six in this story but yet in my other big fan fic that I'm working on, The Life of Stardust, I still haven't and I'm sixteen or so chapters into that one. Anyways please like, comment, follow, and check out my other stories and I will see you all next time